This week, Claremont College participated in Australia’s annual celebration of Science and Technology. National Science Week runs every year in August, featuring more than a thousand events around Australia. This year’s theme was “Glass: more than meets the eye”. Read on to discover how our students celebrated science this year.
KINDERGARTEN
In Kindergarten, we love Science lessons. In Term 3, students have been learning about the weather. They have been enjoying looking at mapping the daily weather and discussing why the weather moves in different ways. They have recently done an experiment with the wind, trying to measure its strength using different materials which they loved.
“I like learning about science experiments, sometimes I even do science at home.” Claire L
“When we learnt about plants I really liked it.” Serena Y
“We did an experiment where some colours went up the plants. Mine didn’t work but that’s okay in Science.” Selena J
“Experiments are fun in Science but we haven’t made anything explode yet. I’m excited for that.” Charlie R
“When you do Science you can do potions, but there are lots of other experiments you can do too.” George C
YEAR 1
Year 1 has been learning about how animals grow and change. We have observed how chicken and butterflies change in our learning space. We watched our chickens hatch and butterflies emerge from their chrysalis. We have also learned about how animals can be categorised by their external features. It has been such an exciting week in Year 1.
“Butterflies have compound eyes.” Brindha P
“Did you know that butterflies migrate to warmer countries to stay warm.”- Riley N
“Chicken use their egg tooth to help them to break out of the egg.”- Zachary Z
“I didn’t know butterflies have a coiled tongue to suck nectar from flowers.” - Matilda T
YEAR 2
Lava Lamps
In celebration of National Science Week, Year 2 completed their own science experiment in small groups to explore liquid density. Prior to the experiment, students read through the materials list and the method, and were asked to write a hypothesis. This created excitement amongst the Year 2 students, with many hypothesising that adding an aspirin tablet to water and oil may result in an explosion. Although there were no explosions in Year 2 this week, as many had anticipated, students became mesmerised by the lava lamp they had created. As students became captivated by the effect of the aspirin tablet, watching the colourful bubbles move throughout the jar, they were able to compare the density of water and oil.
“It was amazing when the aspirin tablet was in the jar and made the bubbles.” Chloe H
“My favourite part of the experiment was when we put the tablet in because it was so fun seeing it bubble up. Our group worked really well and we all tried to take turns with our jobs so it was fair.” Joshua P
“I liked when we saw the green bubbles because it looked scientific. My prediction was right when I thought it would bubble but I was wrong because I thought it would explode” - Archer L
“My hypothesis was wrong because I thought it was going to explode.” Maelyn G
“I knew we were going to make lava lamps because I watch experiment challenges on YouTube, so I knew what we were making. I liked watching the tablet burst in the jar and watching it make bubbles.” Tom H
YEAR 3
On Monday afternoon, Year 3 students enjoyed making paper models of flying seeds. The students modified their models using paper clips and feathers to help their models fly faster or even further. Our rainbow room was converted into a cinema where students could watch a special documentary about plastic in our oceans. Students shared their reflections using a Padlet. To celebrate this year’s theme, “Glass: more than meets the eye”, students studied patterns made by glass. They went on to make their own patterns and used their iPads to take photos of patterns they could see around their learning space. Year 3 students also enjoyed expanding their vocabulary about glass by playing a special version of “Taboo”. Here are some reflections from our Year 3 Team.
“I really enjoyed making the seed models because it was fun to make. It was great to throw it and watch it turn and fly.” Aleks
“I liked playing the card game because it was a challenge to think of other words to use when describing glass. I liked making the patterns because I could create my own using shape blocks and drawing.” Isabel R
“It was great having different stations of activities because we got to choose which one you liked the best. We could do more than one activity. I also really liked the spinning seed activity, which made the seed fly and spin really fast.” Finn P
“I really liked the video because it was about plastic and how it makes people think about not throwing plastic anywhere. It made me think of how to throw rubbish away by using the right bins.” Charlotte K
YEAR 4
During STEM, Year 4 created Marble Mazes using various materials. The goal was to begin at the top of a large paper placed on the wall and end at the bottom into a paper cup. Students used curves, jumps, drops and spins to design their maze. Each group used their creativity, design and collaborative skills to create a unique maze. Here are some reflections from Year 4.
The students have been learning about Forces this term and creating a Gravity presentation. They have been fascinated with the effects of gravity and predicting what would happen if the gravity on Earth disappeared!
“I really enjoyed the gravity presentation because we got to design and plan our information with our friends.” Caelyn Y
“I really liked the marble runs because I was able to be creative.” Angus
“I liked learning about the gravitational formulas.” Peter L
“I enjoyed all the STEM challenges because you get to be creative and you know what you want and you can try to make it happen in reality.” Lily
“I really liked doing the presentation, putting it together, making it pretty and presenting it.” Valentina
“I like STEM because you get to work out things with your partners. You can apply your own ideas.” Chloe
“I like STEM because you get to be in partners and get to know each other more. You get to be creative and build things.” Roy J
YEAR 5
This week, Year 5 has enjoyed investigating ‘glass’ in science. We watched videos on how glass is made, the art of glass blowing and an innovative video on making a glass marble. Rich discussion followed. Many students understood that sand makes glass, but were surprised to find:
"Sand melts at 3000 degrees!" Audrey Y
"The process of making glass takes 3 days." Maya MZ
"A layer of tin is placed under glass, the lighter glass floats on the denser tin, allowing it to dry flat." Ben
"Workers in the glass factory wore a uniform made of a similar material to bullet proof armour." Isla B
Students were fascinated by the bespoke glass art and marble making video and the time it takes to make one of these creations.
The students engaged in making our own mini-lava lamps in small glass jars. We learnt that the process of dispersion between the oil and water in the lamps was similar to that of tin and glass when manufacturing glass.
YEAR 6
For National Science Week, Year 6 enjoyed learning more about glass by completing a virtual escape room. A lot of the students already knew that glass was made from sand, but most students were surprised to learn about the global sand shortage and why this is having an impact on glass production. Year 6 then worked in teams to complete challenges and solve problems while learning about the properties of glass and how it’s made.
Some of the activities and challenges included:
- Using tangram glass puzzles
- Exploring the art of glass making and stain glass windows
- Discovering how glass can be created in nature
- Experimenting with refraction by reading coded messages through glasses of water
- Using glass lenses to read very small writing
- Exploring how glass can be infinitely recycled, melted and reshaped without degrading in quality
- Using coloured glass to read coded messages
- Exploring how touch screens work
Below are reflections from some of the students about the challenges, and what they learnt:
“My favourite activity was the one where we used a banana and the carrot with an iPad and they worked!” Charisma V
“I learnt that sand is running out and that we need another resource to make glass.” Caleb S
“I didn’t know that only some types of sand can be used to make glass.” Victoria G
“It was fun to work in a group and try lots of different puzzles related to glass.” Stella C
“I liked cracking all the codes in the escape room.” Illiana S
